Capital One: Waive Your Rights, Get $10 Off Your Next Overlimit Fee!

By Ben PopkenNovember 2, 2009

Everett says Capital One called him up and made him an offer. If he opted out of at least one of the consumer credit protections enacted by the CARD act, Capital One would drop the overlimit fees from $39 to $29! Woo!

Everett writes:

The person on the other end of the phone informed me, “due to the changes made by [the Card Act], Capital One would have to deny any charges that goes over your credit limit starting in February of 2010. However if you want to maintain the ability to go over your credit limit you could opt to have your account stay the same as it is now. Your fee for going over your credit limit would be dropped to $29 (from $39) if you chose to do this.” I find it interesting that I can waive federal law applying to my credit card account for a potential savings of ten dollars. Comparing that to everything I’d lose out on, I decided to “opt in” for the law to apply to me.

I was also told I could “change my mind at any point, and give Capital One a call to let them know.”

Actually, this is brilliant. Some people don’t need the government telling them they can’t live outside their means and they should be able to claim a discount for being a more profitable credit card customer.

I am curious whether “have your account stay the same as it is now” means that you would opt out of ALL of the CARD act provisions, or whether it’s just the overlimit fee part.